Vin­ode Mam­chan

For­mer stand­out West In­dies pac­er Andy Roberts says West In­dies crick­et has tak­en the medi­oc­rity road and change is need­ed in the ad­min­is­tra­tion in the Caribbean.

He chid­ed the play­ers, se­lec­tors and of­fi­cials of West In­dies crick­et and said what is be­ing pre­sent­ed as West In­dies crick­et at the mo­ment is just medi­oc­rity. Roberts said the se­lec­tors led by Clyde Butts and in­clud­ing Raph­ick Ju­madeen and Robert Haynes made a se­ri­ous blun­der in us­ing Adri­an Barath and Dar­ren Bra­vo in the T20 match against Zim­bab­we. "I can­not un­der­stand why the se­lec­tors would play Dar­ren Bra­vo and Adri­an Barath in the T20 match against Zim­bab­we. "The two young men were com­ing off in­juries and why did they rush them in­to play­ing a T20 match? "The two young men would have been bet­ter served go­ing to play for T&T in the re­gion­al crick­et match, to help ease them­selves back in­to in­ter­na­tion­al crick­et. I think the se­lec­tors made a se­ri­ous blun­der in this re­gard." He said the re­gion­al crick­et se­ries was not up to stan­dard: "When you have on­ly sev­en hun­dreds in a re­gion­al tour­na­ment, that tells you some­thing. Our crick­et is not good at all.

For this, I am not on­ly blam­ing the West In­dies Crick­et Board (WICB) but al­so the play­ers them­selves. "The play­ers must take an in­ter­est in their own de­vel­op­ment and put in the hours in train­ing to be­come bet­ter. This is not hap­pen­ing and just adding to the gen­er­al medi­oc­rity which is present right now in our crick­et." Roberts who took 202 wick­ets for the West In­dies in 47 Tests, added the state of the pitch­es in the Caribbean was not good be­cause they were un­der-utilised. "The pitch­es are not be­ing used enough and this is why they are not hard. By us­ing the pitch­es and prepar­ing them, they would get hard­er and would not crum­ble as they are do­ing now and of­fer­ing so much turn for the spin­ners." Zim­bab­we's four-prong spin at­tack have reaped much suc­cess against the West In­dies in the cur­rent Dig­i­cel lim­it­ed overs crick­et se­ries. Roberts added the West In­dies need­ed peo­ple who have crick­et at heart. "We need to start by hav­ing those who serve at the ter­ri­to­r­i­al lev­el, hav­ing crick­et at heart. Then there would come a time when ter­ror­i­ties would be­come strong.

Even if we have one strong ter­ri­to­ry, West In­dies crick­et would be bet­ter off be­cause a num­ber of good play­ers would come from there. How­ev­er, none is good at the mo­ment and this is not help­ing West In­dies crick­et. "Change needs to come and it must start from the top. If the head is not good, them what would you ex­pect to get from the rest? West In­dies crick­et is worth sav­ing but the right peo­ple have to get on board or else is more prob­lems in store."